It’s that time of year. No, not holiday shopping. Rather, annual rate increase notices. And, next up is Sirius XM, who just hit me with a letter that indicates my online streaming add-on will increase from $3.50/mo to $4/mo. A fifty cent increase is pretty insignificant, yet these sorts of notifications may motivate folks such as myself to examine our usage scenarios and competing offerings. As it turns out, I mostly listen to Sirius XM in the car and would probably get more phone, tablet, Sonos enjoyment by re-upping with a more customizable Internet Radio service like Slacker… for the same $4. (It also looks like my satellite rate will eventually go up, but not quite yet as I agreed to an annual package.)
You should consider AOL Slacker radio for $4/month.
It allows you to select and download a variety of stations for online/offline listening.
Let’s you skip any songs you do not like.
The free version only allows skipping up to 6 songs every few hours and no offline listening mode.
Yes! Couple that with the always stellar customer service at XM and I’m renewing, finally again after swearing them off 5 years ago.
Wait. No I’m not. Just die already and reincarnate as a competitive company that didn’t ship their operations overseas. Then I’m back in. Why, I’d probably even pay more.
I don’t get why they go to market as two different companies. And then expect me to do a promo/renewal shuffle? Unify their channel lineups and offer me $100 per year for two cars and I’ll pay. Otherwise, pass.
I ended up speaking with a friendly and competent woman (overseas) who efficiently cancelled both my car and online services. The experience was a rarity compared to most or all of my prior interactions with Sirius XM’s call center. It’s possible I’ll re-up in the car at some point, as I generally appreciate the programming. But, as of this AM, I’m on Slacker Plus ($4/mo) for mobile, home (Sonos), and car (Bluetooth)… for the time being.
I would have cancelled XM long ago, but my kids are addicted to the XM Kids channel. They call in to the DJs and know the shows, which is a little strange, but kids are weird. My tiny commute doesn’t warrant pay radio and I’m a big enough nerd that I enjoy NPR or WTOP, so it’s FM for me.
Price increase? I’m not surprised. This is the same company that agreed not to hike prices post-merger for a period of a couple of years and almost immediately left the price the “same” but added a “music royalty” fee. Now that the moratorium on pretending not to raise rates, it doesn’t surprise me to see this.
We used to have two radios plus one streaming account. Then it was two radios. Then one. Then none. We re-upped on a $25 for 6 month deal. Then that lapsed, we asked for them to do it again, they said no, but offered us $100 for a year. We turned them down, and a few months later they sent a letter offering the $25 deal again. By then we were streaming phone phone via Bluetooth and just didn’t care. My wife asked at what price I would consider, I said frankly, I wouldn’t.
I did buy their stock at under a buck and sell at $8 something, so there’s that.
Crap!! I really wish I had purchased lifetime service when I got my car with XM back in 2007. I really need to consider dumping them. I already dropped down to the lower tier which runs around $10 a month. But I barely use it in the car. I mostly listen to Pandora which was only $3 a month, and I also listen to my music from Amazon Cloud Music. But I would certainly miss it for the times that I do listen to it in the car. And I haven’t listened to Terrestrial Music in years. I only listen to the news station on Terrestrial radio.
And yet I bet the sound quality will remain the same crummy overcompressed digitized garbage. I actually sub to the internet portion and use the iPhone app in my car because the sound quality is FAR better using a cellular data connection than using the Satellite. Who would of ever thought that would be the case 10 years ago?
I’ve already been planning to cancel both in-car and online after the Holidays. It’s convenient in the car, but the sound quality is poor and the value just isn’t there. Seriously, I could purchase a lot more mp3s for that without even touching my data plan for streaming when I want a little more variety. I also miss some the clearchannel offerings.